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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27389509">The Tragedy of JK Rowling</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Meta Essay - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:40:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27389509</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Commentary on the fall of JK Rowling, and how she became one of the most memed writers ever.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Tragedy of JK Rowling</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Almost everyone has heard of JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. </p><p>And recently, almost everyone has seen her dramatic plummet from grace.</p><p>But I'm not here today to talk about her perceived transphobic comments, because multiple trans Youtubers have covered this issue better than I could hope to. I'm here to talk about her attempts to earn credit for diversity without actually trying to depict diverse characters, because for many people, her attempts to seem "progressive" turned them away from the creator of Harry Potter faster than those comments.</p><p>Now, I'm not denying that the Harry Potter series was all white straight British teens. There were characters of color, such as Cho Chang and the Patil twins. It just so happened that all the major characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna, and Draco) were white straight British teens. Nor do I feel that the absence of plot relevant diverse characters is a dire issue. The issue is that she's ashamed of writing a series with not a lot of diversity, so she tries implementing diversity in an either offensive or laughable manner. </p><p>
  <b> The Snake in the Room </b>
</p><p>As a person of Asian descent myself, I feel that this is the only...uh...issue that I really have the grounds to discuss.</p><p>In 2018 in the second Fantastic Beasts movie, Rowling revealed that Voldemort's snake Nagini was actually an Asian woman who had been cursed to turn into an animal. While she stated that she left a clue in Nagini's name, <i>naga</i>, I doubt this, since nothing else in the main books even alluded to Nagini being anything more than an ordinary snake.</p><p>Even without the racist implications, this reveal is...unnecessary. She very easily could have just made an Asian Animagi who lived in Paris (though she might need to research why or how an Asian person came to live in Europe); that way she could add an interesting new member to the cast without even needing to add anything to the preexisting lore. I know that it's a large world out there, and obviously in the original series we only saw a small fraction of it, but I feel that in this case it would be better for her to stick to the Animagi lore, something that readers were already familiar with, and save the Maledictus for later. In addition, even as Nagini, she doesn't do that much in the movie and could easily have been removed.</p><p>
  <i>Side note: A lot of film reviewers have discussed the second Fantastic Beasts movie and how it's a mess of flashbacks and plot points for the next movie. I think that this Nagini reveal is one of these plot points set up for future movies/products. Maybe future movies might explore her gradual loss of humanity and encounter with Voldemort, but for now...this is what we have. And that's not how you write a movie, or even a book. The original books were good because though they set up overarching elements (see: Horcruxes in book 2), they still told complete stories on their own.</i>
</p><p>But with the understanding that Nagini is a person, her death at the hands of Neville in Book 7 seems tragic, even though it was supposed to be read as triumphant. <i>Yeah! Neville finally had his moment! He killed the final Horcrux!</i> becomes <i>Neville decapitated an Asian woman who was cursed to turn into a snake and forced to kill people. Uhh...yay?</i> In addition, there's all the issues of her being Voldemort's pet, and though she seems to be his companion, in the original series she is very much devoid of humanity. And while I'm hopeful that her story will be elaborated on later (it should be, at the very least, if it isn't...well...I'm coming back here and editing), as things are right now, the portrayal of Asian characters in Harry Potter is...laughable at best and outright harmful at worst. No one wanted this reveal, and frankly no one needed it.</p><p>If her goal was to provide representation, she failed. You don't retroactively decide that certain characters are Asian or black or LGBT or attack helicopters, you have to put it in the actual text. If she wanted to write a diverse cast, by all means, go ahead. But she can't retroactively change the original works and expect us to believe that the series was diverse all along.</p><p>
  <b> The Tragedy </b>
</p><p>I call this situation a "tragedy" because it could have been avoided so, so easily. </p><p>Rowling could have become a beacon for diverse writers. She could have led the movement that she's trying so desperately to join right now.</p><p>When people complain about Rowling's lack of meaningful diversity, they typically compare her to Rick Riordan, an author who actually takes care in writing non-white and non-straight characters. He also started with a series populated with mostly white straight teens, but he actually took efforts to diversify his universe, starting from the second series, The Heroes of Olympus. For example, he introduced Leo Valdez, Frank Zhang, and Piper McLean (who are Latino, Chinese, and Cherokee respectively), and revealed that Nico di Angelo was gay. </p><p>However, the first book in the Heroes series, <i>The Lost Hero</i>, was released in 2010. As revealed earlier, Deathly Hallows was released in 2007. She had the time to beat Riordan to the diversity game, but...she did not.</p><p>Rowling could have very, very easily released shorter stories, still set in the same universe but addressing different corners and aspects of it. Maybe not a full-blown story akin to the original series, but still knowledge drops that elaborate on things mentioned but not fleshed out in the original books. As I stated before, it's a large world, full of diverse stories that can be told. In fact, she could have more explicitly addressed Dumbledore's sexuality in one of these stories, which would give fans assurance that she did care about LGBT characters, and it was the evil homophobic movie execs who weren't allowing her to show openly gay characters and relationships in the movies in as much depth as fans would like.</p><p>
  <b> Summary </b>
</p><p>Despite having so many opportunities to bring genuinely meaningful representation into her works, Rowling did not take any of them. The issues I pointed out are just the tip of the iceberg. I didn't even elaborate on the issues with werewolves being a metaphor for HIV, or how Ilvermorny makes no sense, or how silly the Sorting ceremony and the houses are...<br/>
And even if she does, she probably won't even reap the monetary benefits of it, because her Twitter presence has caused many people to reconsider spending money on HP-related material.</p>
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